Blockbuster Officially Files for Bankruptcy

[jasonpwns]

We used to rent our movies/games from movie gallery back in the day where n64 games and stuff ruled the shelves. Block buster was always over priced and Movie Gallery had lots more stuff it seemed like.

 

[Aintry]

I remember that going into the local Blockbuster to rent 'The Godfather' turned into a running joke. The store never seemed to have a copy of the movie when I wanted it.

Then the other video shop I rented from closed because of Blockbuster's invasion of the local market. So I ended up buying a copy of 'The Godfather' because there didn't seem to any choice if I wanted to actually see the movie at home. Besides, I figured I would save a lot of money in gas not driving fruitlessly back and forth to Blockbuster.

Netflix is, if nothing else, convenient as hell.

 

[Guest]

Blockbuster was a bad experience you put up with to be able to watch movies at home without the cost of buying them.

Now that we do not have to put up with their shit to watch movies cheaply, we dont. Good riddance to that crap company.

 

[f-14]

what's wrong mr. obama isn't blockbuster to big to fail, where's their bailout?! why wasn't this loop hole closed in bankruptcy for business, just citizens got the shaft in the new bankruptcy laws.

you file chapter 11 bankruptcy to get out of debt from your creditors you forfeit the company. that's how it was with la bells when they went bankrupt and the restructuring which became best, which went bankrupt and restructured again and became best buy.

i saw this comming the day i saw a redbox for the first time in mcdonalds, trust me they saw it also, and every year after with sales reports, and they milked this cash cow to death with out changing and adapting, they did it this way on purpose. all it would have taken was closing up the stores every time the lease went up for renewal on each location and installinga monster 'blockbuster kiosk' in even more prime locations like the entire outside front wall a grocery store, fast food joint or shopping store. this is what should have happened on wall street and with GM/Chrysler. bad decisions should be rewarded with market realities.
nobody misses the dodo bird, i wouldn't miss chysler, gm, hollywood video, circuit city or blockbuster either.
seriously how many of you guys are missing 8 track, cassettes, betamax/vhs, hd dvd? how many of you will be missing bluray in a few more years when everything goes on flash memory cards or is online downloadable only?

 

[Guest]

I've been waiting for them to go under. When you charge $5 for a movie that I have to physically pick up, Ondemand for $3 looks like a great deal, now don't it? Let alone Netflix for $10 month unlimited streaming. I can deal with Family Video, prices aren't too bad and they have great customer service, snowy and can't delivery your vid, they'll waive the late fee from the weather.

 

[False_Dmitry_II]

@jerreece

I wish I had a Hastings near here then, that sounds great. What's funny is that I've run into their goHastings site (at least, through amazon) and have ended up buying a bunch of used games from them.

 

[Rab1d-BDGR]

[citation][nom]cronik93[/nom]I guess Pirate Bay and Netflix finally did it.[/citation]

Ultimately, they did it to themselves. I found it was frequently possible to buy the DVD then sell it on when I had finished with lower net cost than renting from blockbuster. I'm amazed they lasted this long.

 

[cronik93]

You know whats really bad....I had a dream I ranted a DVD from Block Buster last night.

 

[Darkerson]

After trying out a Netflix trial this past month, I now know why BB is filing for bankruptcy. Its frikkin awesome! That and normally, my wife is the one who is saying the usual "No, we cant afford that". After less then a week in the trial, she threatened me if I canceled it! We ended up picking the 2 DVD/Unlimited streaming plan and couldnt be happier! BB basically has one last chance to adapt or fade away.

 

[LuckyDucky7]

So, I guess the strategy of driving out the local competition and then over-charging for videos just didn't work for them... The same story with a certain video place that used to run where I used to live (That was, apparently, their strategy, and needless to say it didn't work).

The funny thing is that the other store charges pretty much by release date (5 bucks for a new release is quite reasonable, as well as 2 for an older title, like the Bonds), and so doesn't seem to "under fire" at the moment.

 

[JOSHSKORN]

Well lets see. Blockbuster had "Listen before you buy" and then came along YouTube which didn't even require effort getting out of the house, driving to Blockbuster and entering the store. Additionally, all you had to do is navigate to Amazon and buy the music you wanted and it'd be delivered to you. Pretty simple. It ain't rocket science trying to figure out why they went out of business.

 

[nforce4max]

The one enduring memory of them besides their late "fees" is that almost every one of their "stores" stunk of something awful from every thing from dead crickets, body odor, and in one place it stunk like rancid pickles, eeew!!! I will not miss them.

 

[victomofreality]

WHAT? Blockbuster was still open? Colour me surprised!

 

[yesitsmario]

I used to go there to buy cheap pre-owned dvd's...

 

[td854]

eh.. Blockbuster may have had some really poor business practices but I never had a problem with stock or selection. Speaking entirely of blu-ray which is all I watch, I've found the selection at netflix and redbox to be extremely poor. Not to mention last time I tried netflix streaming it was stereo only, that may have changed by now but at the time it was a waste of a surround sound system.

That said, I've rented movies only twice in the last 5 years or so (from Blockbuster or any other source.) because it was usually cheaper in the long run to just buy it. As for DVDs... well I haven't touched them since the PS3 came around.

 

[thebigt42]

[citation][nom]fball922[/nom]Is anyone really surprised by this? When you charge out the @$$ for a rental that you can either get cheaper elsewhere (Family Video), obtain digitally (Netflix Instant, other sources), or get as part of a subscription (ummmm... Netflix agfain), who would want to shop at a Blockbuster? I always hated those stores...[/citation]
Or even from blockbuster express for 1$

 

[casperstouch]

Too bad they never came into some type of partnership, where people paid there 8.99 and could exchange their videos the same day at a local blockbuster. Now that I could go for, instead of waiting for the shipping, since the streaming never has the newer stuff on it.

 

[fayzaan]

where are those people now who were saying that it would take another 10 or 15 years at least for downloading/streaming to take control?

 

[vniwaja]

I'm still using Blockbuster as most of my experience with them has been very good. I have Total Access US$20+tax month. Netflix with blu-ray looks to be about the same for the 3 at a time plan with blu-ray. With Blockbuster, I can drive to the store and exchange my movies for in store movies. The store is less than 10 minutes away, they are usually well stock with blu-ray titles. The two issues I have with Blockbuster is their poorly implemented video streaming and special rental DVDs that contain coming attractions at the start of the DVD with menu access blocked.